Luka Doncic has made a decisive step towards securing the first home advantage in the NBA playoffs for the first time in his young career.
Doncic scored 32 points and the Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz 114-100 to take a one-game lead in the fourth-seed race over their opponents.
The teams split their season series, with the home team winning all four games. Dallas would have to finish a game ahead of Utah if the Jazz keep their Northwest Division lead over Denver. The Mavericks and Jazz have seven games remaining.
If Dallas made it to the playoffs with the home court advantage, this will be the first time since 2011 and the championship run with Dirk Nowitzki, that the team will play its first playoff games at home.
”Most of their team wasn’t playing, so you can’t judge,” Kidd said, via NBA.com. ”We had a Christmas game out there without half our team. You only will be judged once the playoffs start. This wasn’t a playoff game. No one’s up 1-0.”
Utah played without Rudy Gobert, who was a late scratch for the visitors, while Bojan Bogdanovic was out for the ninth time in 10 games as he battles a right calf strain.
Utah had a scare during the third quarter when Donovan Mitchell went down briefly after Dwight Powell landed on his lower right leg. That was the fourth straight loss for the Jazz.
Despite all that, the Mavericks did the work to put themselves in a good position with Doncic leading the way.
Now they will need to finish strong the rest of the season to remain in the fourth seed or get even higher considering the drop of the Golden State Warriors, who lost another game Sunday.
”That’s what we wanted, but it’s a long way to go,” Doncic said. ”We’ve still got to keep our composure, focus on the next opponent and try to win every game.”
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